Project Fail: Cracking A Laptop BIOS Password Using AI

January 15, 2026 by No comments

Whenever you buy used computers there is a risk that they come with unpleasant surprises that are not of the insect variant. From Apple hardware that is iCloud-locked with the original owner MIA to PCs that have BIOS passwords, some of these are more severe than others. In the case of BIOS passwords, these tend to be more of an annoyance that’s easily fixed by clearing the CMOS memory, but this isn’t always the case as [Casey Bralla] found with a former student-issued HP ProBook laptop purchased off Facebook Marketplace.

Maybe it’s because HP figured that locking down access to the BIOS is essential on systems that find their way into the hands of bored and enterprising students, but these laptops write the encrypted password and associated settings to a separate Flash memory. Although a master key purportedly exists, HP’s policy here is to replace the system board. Further, while there are some recovery options that do not involve reflashing this Flash memory, they require answers to recovery questions.

This led [Casey] to try brute-force cracking, starting with a Rust-based project on GitHub that promised much but failed to even build. Undeterred, he tasked the Claude AI to write a Python script to do the brute-forcing via the Windows-based HP BIOS utility. The chatbot was also asked to generate multiple lists of unique passwords to try that might be candidates based on some human guesses.

Six months later of near-continuous attempts at nine seconds per try, this method failed to produce a hit, but at least the laptop can still be used, just without BIOS access. This may require [Casey] to work up the courage to do some hardware hacking and erase that pesky UEFI BIOS administrator password, proving at least that apparently it’s fairly good BIOS security.

A hand operating a numeric touch pad

Building An Escape Room Lockbox With The ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display (CYD)

January 15, 2026 by No comments

Here’s something fun from [Chad Kapper] over on HackMakeMod: Escape Room Lockbox with the Cheap Yellow Display.

You may have heard of the “cheap yellow display” (CYD), so-called due to the board’s typical color. It’s a dodgy cheapo board with, among other things, TFT display, touchscreen, and ESP32 built-in. You can learn more about the CYD over here: Getting Started with ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display Board – CYD (ESP32-2432S028R).

In this build eight AA batteries are used to deliver 12 volts to operate a solenoid controlling a latch and 5 volts for the microcontroller. The encasing is clear in order to entice players in an escape-room style sitting. The custom software is included down the bottom of the project page and it is also available from arduino.cc, if that’s your bag.

Of course we’ve done plenty of other ESP32 TFT projects before, such as Piko – Your ESP32 Powered Fitness Buddy and ESP32 Brings New Features To Classic Geiger Circuit.

Building A Carousel Autosampler

January 15, 2026 by 1 Comment

A common task in a laboratory setting is that of sampling, where a bit of e.g. liquid has to be sampled from a series of containers. Doing this by hand is possible, but tedious, ergo an autosampler can save a lot of time and tedium. Being not incredibly complex devices that have a lot in common with e.g. FDM 3D printers and CNC machines, it makes perfect sense to build one yourself, as [Markus Bindhammer] of Marb’s Lab on YouTube has done.

The specific design that [Markus] went for uses a sample carousel that can hold up to 30 bottles of 20 mL each. An ATmega-based board forms the brain of the machine, which can operate either independently or be controlled via I2C or serial. The axes and carousel are controlled by three stepper motors, each of which is driven by a TB6600 microstep driver.

Why this design is a time saver should be apparent, as you can load the carousel with bottles and have the autosampler handle the work over the course of however long the entire process takes instead of tying up a human. Initially the autosampler will be used for the synthesis of cadmium-selenium quantum dots, before it will be put to work for an HPLC/spectrometer project.

Although [Markus] intends this to be an open hardware and software project, it will take a bit longer to get all the files and documentation organized. Until then we will have to keep manually sampling, or use the video as the construction tutorial.

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The Random Laser

January 15, 2026 by 1 Comment

When we first heard the term “random laser,” we did a double-take. After all, most ordinary sources of light are random. One defining characteristic of a traditional laser is that it emits coherent light. By coherent, in this context, that usually includes temporal coherence and spatial coherence. It is anything but random. It turns out, though, that random laser is a bit of a misnomer. The random part of the name refers to how the device generates the laser emission. It is true that random lasers may produce output that is not coherent over long time scales or between different emission points, but individually, the outputs are coherent. In other words, locally coherent, but not always globally so.

That is to say that a random laser might emit light from four different areas for a few brief moments. A particular emission will be coherent. But not all the areas may be coherent with respect to each other. The same thing happens over time. The output now may not be coherent with the output in a few seconds.

Baseline

A conventional laser works by forming a mirrored cavity, including a mirror that is only partially reflective. Pumping energy into the gain medium — the gas, semiconductor, or whatever — produces more photons that further stimulate emission. Only cavity modes that satisfy the design resonance conditions and experience gain persist, allowing them to escape through the partially reflecting mirror.

The laser generates many photons, but the cavity and gain medium favor only a narrow set of modes. This results in a beam that is of a very narrow band of frequencies, and the photons are highly collimated. Sure, they can spread over a long distance, but they don’t spread out in all directions like an ordinary light source. Continue reading “The Random Laser” →

AC Motor Converted Into DC EBike Powerplant

January 15, 2026 by 6 Comments

AC induction motors are everywhere, from ceiling fans to vehicles. They’re reliable, simple, and rugged — but there are some disadvantages. It’s difficult to control the speed without complex electronics, and precisely placing the shaft at a given angle is next to impossible. But the core of these common induction machines can be modified and rewired into brushless DC (BLDC) motors, provided you have a few tools on hand as [Austin] demonstrates.

To convert an AC induction motor to a brushless DC electric motor (BLDC), the stator needs to be completely rewired. It also needs a number of poles proportional to the number of phases of the BLDC controller, and in this case the 24-pole motor could accommodate the three phases. [Austin] removed the original stator windings and hand-wound his own in a 16-pole configuration. The rotor needs modification as well, so he turned the rotor on a lathe and then added a set of permanent magnets secured to the rotor with JB Weld. From there it just needs some hall effect sensors, a motor controller and power to get spinning.

At this point the motor could be used for anything a BLDC motor would be used. For this project, [Austin] is putting it on a bicycle. A 3D printed pulley mounts to the fixed gear on the rear wheel, and a motor controller, battery, and some tensioners are all that is left to get this bike under power. His tests show it comfortably drawing around 1.3 kW so you may want to limit this if you’re in Europe but other than that it works extremely well and reminds us of one of our favorite ebike conversions based on a washing machine motor instead of a drill press.

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ISS Medical Emergency: An Orbital Ambulance Ride

January 15, 2026 by 21 Comments

Over the course of its nearly 30 years in orbit, the International Space Station has played host to more “firsts” than can possibly be counted. When you’re zipping around Earth at five miles per second, even the most mundane of events takes on a novel element. Arguably, that’s the point of a crewed orbital research complex in the first place — to study how humans can live and work in an environment that’s so unimaginably hostile that something as simple as eating lunch requires special equipment and training.

Today marks another unique milestone for the ISS program, albeit a bittersweet one. Just a few hours ago, NASA successfully completed the first medical evacuation from the Station, cutting the Crew-11 mission short by at least a month. By the time this article is released, the patient will be back on terra firma and having their condition assessed in California.  This leaves just three crew members on the ISS until NASA’s Crew-12 mission can launch in early February, though it’s possible that mission’s timeline will be moved up.

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Looking At A Real Fake Raspberry Pi RP2040 Board

January 15, 2026 by 14 Comments

Since the RP2040 microcontroller is available as a stand-alone component, it’s easy enough for third parties to churn out their own variations — or outright clones of — the Raspberry Pi Pico. Thus we end up with for example AliExpress sellers offering their own versions that can be significantly cheaper than the genuine article. The ones that [electronupdate] obtained for a test and decapping session cost just $2.25 a pop.

RP2 B0 stepping imprinted on the die shot.

As can be seen in the top image, the board from AliExpress misses the Raspberry Pi logo on the silkscreen for obvious reasons, but otherwise appears to feature an identical component layout. The QSPI Flash IC is marked on the die as BY250156FS, identifying it as a Boya part.

Niggles about flash ROM quality aside, what’s perhaps most interesting about this teardown is what eagle-eyed commentators spotted on the die shot of the RP2040. Although on the MCU the laser markings identify the RP2040 as a B2 stepping, the die clearly identifies it as an ‘RP2 B0’ part, meaning B0 stepping. This can be problematic when you try to use the USB functionality due to hardware USB bugs in the B0 and B1 steppings.

As they say, caveat emptor.

Continue reading “Looking At A Real Fake Raspberry Pi RP2040 Board” →